13/04/2016 BBC News at Six

Calls for the Culture Secretary to step aside as regulator

of the press after he's accused of a conflict of interest.

John Whittingdale had a relationship with a sex worker two years ago.

I've made a statement, I've nothing further to add.

Four newspapers knew but chose not to publish the story.

Labour says it left him vulnerable to pressure from the papers

The public and the victims of phone hacking need to be sure the decision

making process has nothing to do with any kind of undue influence.

But Mr Whittingdale insists the fact that the papers knew about a secret

in his private life has not influenced his

Back to black - Tesco celebrates a profit after its worst ever

An outcry as vigilante groups in Bulgaria round up

migrants on their way through Eastern Europe.

How a paralysed man is able to play the guitar -

And feeding time for William and Kate take as they highlight

the threat to endangered animals in India.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

The Culture Secretary is under pressure to withdraw from decisions

about press regulation, after it emerged that he'd had

a relationship with a woman who's a sex worker.

Four newspapers knew about it back in 2014 - Mr Whittingdale

was informed but the papers decided not to publish.

Labour claims it left him "vulnerable" to pressure

from the press while he was - and still is - overseeing

Mr Whittingdale insists it has made no difference to his decisions about

the press. Laura Kuenssberg reports. I've made a statement. The papers

held one of his secrets. And the culture Secretary John Whittingdale

knew all about it. Before he was in the Cabinet, he met a woman on a

dating site in 2030 and then had a six-month relationship with her. He

says he simply didn't know she was a sacks worker but others did. Mr

Whittingdale said, at no time did give me any indication of her real

occupation... Labour believes he should give up

some of his powers over the press. possible upon him in his role in the

Cabinet as the person who looks after press regulation. He

really ought to accuse himself for making these decisions

given these revelations. I still think that a sensible thing

for him and the government to do. If

they don't, the concern is that the press

has something over him. It's awkward for number ten that the Prime

Minister didn't know anything about this until

embarrassing rather than career ending for a politician in the

21st-century to be caught in this kind of relationship.

Could the culture secretary be neutral in his dealings

when he knew some newspapers had details of his private life? He's

adamant that he was, yet the rules for government

ministers say they mustn't just avoid

conflicts of interest, but they must steer well clear of anything that

looks that way. And politicians and the press have been battling in

the aftermath of the Campaigners accused the government

of having gone soft and there are suspicions, firmly denied. The

newspapers might have used their knowledge of Mr Whittingdale's

relationship to part of the letters and enquiry into

press standards is on hold. Criminal cases are still going on. There

still isn't an official press regulator, though the

isn't yet being enforced. So Brian Everson's recommendations have been

carried out to the letter. However, they've gone a long way to meeting

his requirements. They've set up a new regulator, much more

independent. But it's changed the climate, the culture, of Fleet

Street. Number ten says John Whitaker Dale

is a single man entitled to a private life. For now, the Prime

Minister is content to keep him around this table.

This has been tricky for the government. It's been personally

embarrassing for John Whittingdale, who is at the center of this.

Compared to the political problems the government has had to deal with

in the last couple of weeks, it is an

issue on a much smaller scale. It's not quite clear how determined the

Labour Party really is in terms of doggedly pursuing this

issue to its logical conclusion. I have to say what it

maybe has done, slightly more Tripoli, is reopened some of the

real questions about the relationship between politicians and

the press. The UK's biggest supermarket,

Tesco is back in the black. After the worst results

in its history last year, it's announced pre-tax

profits of ?162 million A drive towards lower prices

and stocking fewer products Our Business correspondent

Emma Simpson has more details. Tesco. It has been through some

torrid times. Sales have been on the slide. Now they are on the up. With

the first quarterly sales growth in three years. We're seeing more

people simply choose to walk into a Tesco

versus a year ago. So the number of visit is increasing. The

number of transactions is increasing. And the number of items

that they are buying as customers within Tesco is increasing. Was this

a flash in the pan or is at the start of a sustained recovery.

It's the culmination of a series of very deliberate things that myself

and the team have done over the course of the year. What have they

been up to Western Mark Tesco has been cutting prices, and increasing

the range of its products. There used to be nearly 20% more products

here on these shelves. Now, they've stripped back. The

focus to give customers what they want. The prices are easier than

they used to be, less than they used to be on certain items. I do a lot

of comparison shopping. Tesco is slightly cheaper than

Morrisons on some occasions. Not really, no. Still the same as far as

I can see. This is new. They've taken flak for these fictional farm

names. Tesco is trying to beat discounters

like Aldi and little at their own game with these budget

bags of everyday fruit and veg. -- Lidl. Four years ago, Tesco made

nearly ?4 billion in annual pre-tax profit. Today, it was just 162

million. They are only making 0.3 p for every pound spent at the tills

in Tesco. Previously it could be as high as

8p. It's a fraction of what was made

previously. They have to drive more people into their stores. Not easy

when these discounters are growing fast. The Tesco share price fell

sharply today as it want profits would remain under pressure. It may

be in better shape but the Tesco recovery needs all the help it can

get. There has been an outcry

after footage emerged on the internet of vigilante groups

in Bulgaria rounding up migrants, forcing them

to the ground and tying them up. The government had initially

welcomed the help of such groups who were detaining migrants

illegally crossing They've now reversed their position

after the video was widely condemned - as Jenny Hill

reports from Bulgaria. What happened in the seclusion

of a Bulgarian forest has now been The men on the ground are thought

to be Afghan refugees. The message from their assailants

couldn't be clearer. The video emerged as round the same

time as the Bulgarian Prime Minister publicly thanked citizens

who round up migrants. The footage was taken just

outside this village. it is close to the Turkish

border, we saw dozens Even so, Bogdan tells us,

90% of the migrants who get caught He says he gives refugees something

to eat and drink before Everyone we met here

condemned the video. But it is not the first time

Bulgarians have taken the law Take this man, a self-styled migrant

hunter, who recently restrained National television called

him a superhero. It is illegal to detain migrants -

or anyone for that matter. They had no knowledge these

people were migrants. Physically, it is very

difficult to say. Your Prime Minister has thanked

people who have rounded up refugees, and taken the law

into their own hands. Bulgaria has openly adopted one

of the toughest stances on migrants, Its government says it has

to protect the EU external borders, but it does so, critics say,

at the expense of human rights. A man has been arrested

over the video. And the Government's promised

a crackdown on vigilantes, but still, many here wonder how far

some will go to Vote Leave and Britain Stronger

in Europe have been designated as the official Leave and Remain

campaigns in the EU referendum. the Conservative Party's most

prominent euro-sceptics - has been chosen to lead

the campaign for to pull out Our political correspondent Vicky

Young is at Westminster for us - this wasn't the only group

campaigning for leaving the EU - been real divisions amongst those

who all want to be the lead campaigners to leave the European

Union. The Ukip leader Nigel Farage and the face of most associated with

leaving the EU, he's always felt immigration was the key to winning

the referendum campaign. Others didn't agree with him and he was on

the losing side today. Though he says he won't disappear, he will

continue to campaign. People like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, they

will be in the group that will get to spend the ?7 million of official

money, get to write some of those official document that will come to

our letterboxes. There is one group who are going to complain about the

decision by the electoral commission today. They say they want to go to

court. They even say it could delay the referendum. Realistically,

everyone else is working towards June 23 as the date the British

people get to make this pretty momentous decision.

A paralysed man has been able to perform complex movements

with his hand such as play a video game or swipe a credit card -

The man's thoughts are interpreted by a computer which sends impulses

Our medical correspondent Fergus Walsh has more.

Ian Burkhart is playing a guitar video game.

Using the power of thought, his paralysed fingers can

move as a result of commands from his brain fed

into a computer, which then stimulates his muscles

Ian was paralysed below the elbows in a diving

accident six years ago, but is slowly relearning

Now it's just something that's so fluid, kind of like it was before

I had my injury, where I just think about what I want to do and then

The key to this technology is a tiny computer chip which surgeons

implanted on the area of the brain, the motor cortex

When he thinks about moving his fingers and hand,

those messages can't travel down his injured spinal cord,

The computer interprets the signals and then send impulses

Ian's movements are still slow and deliberate, but his dexterity

He can demonstrate practical tasks, like swiping a bank card.

Engineers hope he will eventually be able to use a keyboard.

The biggest dream would be to get full

You know, because that allows you to be a lot more independent

and not have to rely on people for simple day-to-day tasks that

Several more patients are lined up to receive the device in Ohio.

This really provides hope, we believe, for many patients

in future, as this technology involves and matures,

to help people who have disabilities from spinal-cord injury or traumatic

brain injury or stroke, to allow them to be more functional

Four years ago, a paralysed woman controlled a robotic arm

A different approach is spinal repair.

This paralysed patient in Poland had a cell transplant and

This latest research in the journal Nature is restricted

But the team in Ohio hope the technology will eventually be

wireless and allow patients greater independence.

The Culture Secretary is accused of a conflict of interest

after revelations about an affair with a sex worker.

And still to come: A new attempt to unlock the mysteries of Loch Ness.

Coming up in sport, Britain's world heavyweight boxing champion Tyson

Fury says he has suffered more races since winning his titles and that

nobody wants to see a gypsy do well. -- more racism.

What started as a decision by a small parish council in Bristol

has become the focus of a protest by over 20,000 people,

been condemned by some of Britain's best known Olympic athletes

and criticised by the Sports Minister.

Stoke Gifford Parish Council has voted to become the first

in the world to charge the company Parkrun for organising free fun runs

in the local park which attract hundreds of people.

Jon Kay is in the park for us, this kind of run takes

place in parks all round the country, doesn't it?

Yes it does, it is junior football here tonight but the Parkrun which

takes place at the weekend doesn't just happen nationally it happens

internationally which explains why so many people have signed the

petition today. The chair of the parish council has told us this

afternoon that he alone has received hundreds of e-mails today, some of

them aggressive and abusive, which explains how controversial this

decision is. This place comes alive on Saturday

mornings. When 300 people head to little Stoke Park. Like Sydney and

Seattle, Cape Town and Copenhagen there is a weekly five kilometre

Parkrun. But the parish council has voted to charge for the event, the

first in the world to do so. Amateur athletes who packed to the meeting

say it goes against their ethos of free, fun sport. It is devastating.

Support, it is the people, it is not about the running, it is the people.

In a time of limited budgets the Paris Council says it needs to cover

the increased wear and tear, parish council. Repairing parts can cost

tens of thousands of pounds and a football clubs have took pay to play

matches here councillors ask why not the runners? 300 people pounding the

path, of course there will be extra wear and tear and will have to pay

extra funding for it, something has to pay for that. The decision has

been criticised by many on social media from a government minister to

sporting stars like Dame Kelly Holmes. Paula Radcliffe described it

as short-sighted. It's a shame because it is encouraging fitness. I

do my local Parkrun every Saturday and you are running against all

shapes and sizes. The organisers of the event won't pay and the Parkrun

here will come to an end. So far this is the only council to charge

but will others now follow? More than 2,000 pupils

in Edinburgh are back in classes today after their schools

were closed on Friday over fears The council says practical exams due

to take place this week at schools affected by the closure

have been postponed. While migrants crossing

the mediterranean from Syria have dominated the headlines,

more migrants heading for the UK are coming

from southern Europe. According to Oxford University's

Migration Observatory, most are prompted by the lack

of jobs in the Eurozone. In the last five years the number

of EU nationals living in the UK has risen by almost 700,000 -

and a quarter of them Our correspondent Danny Savage has

been to meet some of those York - a city with a low

unemployment rate and So it is a popular destination

for workers from abroad This woman is from Romania,

she has worked in the Lake District and France and knows why EU

workers are drawn here. It is about the economic

environment. I think from what I have seen that

if they do decide to stay, for a longer time if not forever,

it is down to the The Dean Court Hotel is now

sponsoring her through university. The boss here says a mobile EU

workforce has the right attitude. And then they have the view

of the York Minster A lot of the EU people

coming from overseas want And they see Britain, the UK,

as a fantastic place to work, we reward them very well and look

after them very well. More people from Italy,

Portugal and Spain are now These are countries that actually

have relatively high standards of living but unemployment is quite

high there and that is likely to be one of the reasons people

find the UK attractive. And that was reflected

today in York. I think it is one of the best

decisions I have ever taken I can see now, a decent future

for me in a way that, I have got good English,

I am studying something, I'm getting good experience,

something that I don't really But others say money is not

the only factor. It is not because we can't find

a job back at home it's because we want to do

something more. People will of course move

from the weaker economies of the EU But those we met today are also

here because they like The Duke and Duchess

of Cambridge are on safari in India, as their tour

of South Asia continues. The royal couple are visiting

Kaziranga National Park, They're hoping to draw attention

to the plight of endangered animals, including the park's population

of rare one-horned rhinos. Our royal correspondent

Nicholas Witchell was travelling On safari in Kaziranga National Park

with the Cambridges - Has something been spotted

lurking in the bushes? But no, on the road

just ahead, the Indian one-horned rhinoceros -

just one of the wild creatures

in these parts. In fact, there are lots

of rhinoceroses here, some 2,000 of them,

as well as Bengal tigers, Not for nothing is this

a World Heritage Site. But animals like that

attract the unwelcome William and Catherine met some

of the park rangers, who try to keep Do you patrol in pairs or just

one of you at a time? The park authorities believe

they have the upper hand, despite the fact that the horn

of the Indian rhino is marketed - bogusly, of course -

as being more potent than that It's a continuing struggle

to protect the park's wildlife. After a quick change out

of their safari gear, William and Catherine

went to a local village. There were welcoming garlands

and a quick lesson in weaving. At a centre for wildlife

conservation they were shown baby Animals, some of which,

have been orphaned by poachers. Touching images, which will be

on many front pages, but there is a serious point

to all of this - to highlight the damage being done by poaching

to creatures like these. Up to now, William's

anti-poaching charity has been He now knows the scale

of the problem here in India. Nicholas Witchell, BBC News,

Kaziranga National Park. Nessie has finally been found

in the mysterious dark waters of Loch Ness -

but all is not what quite it seems. A robotic submarine searching

the lake for signs of the mythical beast has found a long-lost model

of the monster, originally built It sank to the bottom of the loch

on its first outing, Our Scotland Correspondent Kevin

Keane is there for us. Presumably not quite what they were

hoping for? No and no sign at the moment, visitors come here from far

and wide to look across these deep dark waters in the hope of catching

a glimpse of that elusive creature. Today finally a Eureka moment as

Nessie put in an appearance. No, it is not a creature

from the deep, it is the device A million pounds worth

of scanning technology mapping On the boat, a real time view

of what it is capturing - Not the flesh and blood version,

unfortunately, but a 30-foot long One story is that the film director

Billy Wilder asked that the humps be removed and the story goes,

that they were associated And well, the inevitable

happened and down she went. Her understudy continued with

the filming in this Sherlock Holmes And Nessie is big business here -

worth an estimated ?60 million I love the idea, it is a very

mysterious place and I am At first it sounded a bit ridiculous

about a monster, but now, like, all the sightings

and all the photographs, I think So no sign of Nessie herself on this

occasion, but this is Temperatures again 16-18d across

parts of England and Wales but look at the difference in parts of

Scotland. I hate to say it, if you have been enjoying the warmth, it's

the cold air which wins out. The sunshine today across the South

Armagh which set of thunderstorms, Lincolnshire suffering some nasty

thunderstorms. They could rumble into the night across parts of

central and southern England and Wales. Starting to ease off. Clear

skies in northern Scotland, some frost and potential sightings of

Aurora Borealis. Showers to start with across some in the south and

they will drift north meaning things brighten up along the south coast

later on. Why the end of the afternoon rain. A dry spell through

the afternoon for the southern counties. The heavy showers in the

afternoon parts of Wales and East Anglia but Scotland and Northern

Ireland without as much rain as we have seen so far this week. It will

feel not quite as cold. But even here things turn colder into Friday

night, the weather front pushing down from the North, there could be

some snow on Laura levels. -- Laura levels. Still warmth where the sun

peeks out in the South, called across the north-east of Scotland.

The culture Secretary John Whittingdale has been accused of a

conflict of interest after revelations about his relationship

with a sex worker. That's all from the BBC News at Six

- so it's goodbye from me -